No Sleep 'til Brooklyn! - BT & Laura's NYC Adventure

What a whirlwind of a trip!  I'm going to (try to) keep the commentary short because I have WAY TOO MANY pictures to share!

We left early Saturday morning and headed up the Eastern Shore.

4 cups of coffee, 15 bathroom breaks and about $30 in tolls later (so worth it by the time you save by not having to take I-95 though), we arrived in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn and got checked in to our awesome AirB&B find.

First order of business was to find some grub and I had just the place in mind!  A quick walk around the block and were en route via the subway.  (We ended up purchasing 7 day, unlimited metro cards for $30/ea and totally got our money's worth.)

My first subway ride.  

Anyone who is hip to the food world (ME) knows about Brooklyn's Smorgasburg, a pop up food vendor event that happens every weekend.  It was truly the only thing I wanted to do while in NY.  Is that sad?

Beside myself with glee! 

Tacoyaki from Mimi & Coco.  Stuffed dough balls with teriyaki sauce.  SO GOOD.

A three cheese grilled cheese from Milk Truck.  Aged Gruyere, Aged New York State Cheddar and Wisconsin Blue with Caramelized Granny Smith Apples on Blue Ribbon Bakery Rosemary Pullman.  I took a bite and died right there.  No really, I about had a heart attack from all of the cheese and butter.  It was incredibly rich.    

The view from the park where it was held was amazing.  And I was freezing my ass off.  

Next stop on the tour was the Brooklyn Brewery, which was right around the corner.  

Nope nope nopity nope. All the way to Nopeville.  There was no way we were going to stand in that line to get in!  Because: A.  It was freezing outside.  B.  Harris Teeter carries their beer and we've both had it before.  C.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  

Moving on.  We made a quick pit stop to buy some leggings for my freezing legs and popped into a local hipster bar for a beer and so that I could put said leggings on. We also needed to come up with what our next course of action would be.  

It was time to venture into Manhattan!  

First stop.  Times Square.  

We snapped this on the walk to Times Square.

That place is a madhouse!  There are people dressed up as different characters panhandling for money everywhere.  

This guy was BT's favorite.  

I really wanted to see the Naked Cowboy and luckily BT spotted him, because I never would've found him in all of the chaos.

We walked around the streets for a bit, slowly making our way to the Brooklyn Bridge (our path back home).  There were a lot of street vendors set up selling their wares.  BT got sucked in by the "arepa arepa!" guy.  (Arepa is a flatbread made of ground maize dough prominent in the cuisine of Colombia and Venezuela - his was stuffed with cheese and was muy delicioso.)

We also passed by Eataly!  A huge market of upscale, Italian foods.  I, of course, insisted we check it out...because FOOD.  

We finally made it to the Brooklyn Bridge and were greeted by freezing, 30 mph wind gusts.  

It was a beautiful walk, albeit cold.  

Back at the casa we enjoyed a couple of beers and attempted to watch Our Idiot Brother, one of the two movies our host had left for us.  We ended up talking through the whole thing and then passing the heck out!  

SUNDAY 

Day two we were up bright and early.  After a quick stop for coffee we headed in the direction of the Brooklyn Flea, one of the items on my life list!

On the way there we passed Prospect Park.  

I was like a kid in a candy shop!

BT was like a kid in a toy store filled with nostalgic items!  

All aboard?...

We had our fill of thrifting and were both getting hangry.  Where to eat?...

Yep.  We went back to Smorgasburg because we're big fat fatties.  ;)  

It's in a different location on Sundays.  We had to walk down to pier 5 in the Brooklyn Bridge Park to get there.  Check out this view from the walk!!!  

What to eat today?  Decisions, decisions!  BT opted for a ramen burger.  Their line was a mile long the previous day, so they had to be good, right?  

Yes, that's ramen noodles for a bun.  

He liked it, but wasn't blown away by it.  I guess people just go crazy over the uniqueness of it.  

I opted for Ethiopian food from Bunna Cafe and it was FANTASTIC.  

100% vegan and absolutely delicious.  

We split an everything cookie from Whimsy & Spice for dessert.

Next up it was back to Manhattan to walk off our lunch in Central Park!  

I've always wanted to visit the Alice in Wonderland statue, so that's where we headed.... I just realized that, so far, everything has been about what I wanted to do...BT is such a trooper.  

It was a beautiful, sunny, fall day in the park.  

Where to next?  How about the Museum of Sex?  Why the hell not?!  We're responsible, mature, consenting adults...

Boob bounce house!  

Genitalia rock climbing wall. 

Along with the interactive exhibits pictured above, the museum had an entire exhibit dedicated to Linda Lovelace.  It was hard to take anything in that room seriously as they had her most famous film (I can't say it on the blog, GaGa reads this for God's sake!) being projected onto a giant wall.  The exhibit we both found most fascinating had to do with mammals, their mating rituals, (massive) private parts (here's looking at you, Argentine Blue Billed Duck), etc.  

I think we both thought it would be more sex in society, the influence of pop culture on sex, history of porn type stuff, and there wasn't a whole lot of that, but it was definitely something different!  

Moving on.  We headed back down to lower Manhattan and mentally prepared ourselves for the 9/11 Memorial.  

This is one of the two reflecting pools/waterfalls that sit within the footprint of the old buildings.  

BT took the above picture as I was taking this picture of the new WTC building.  

The 9/11 Memorial Museum opened to the public in May of this year and after a bit of deliberation as to whether it would bring down the mood of the trip, we opted to go in.  It turned out to be the favorite and most memorable part for both of us.  

I didn't take many pictures inside, but I had to get one of this.  The only commissioned piece of artwork in the museum.  

I encourage you to read about the artist, Spencer Finch, and how he tried to recreate the blue sky of that morning.  It is a massive and absolutely gorgeous piece of art.  

The museum is extremely moving and has so many incredible exhibits.  We arrived shortly after 6 pm and had to rush through some of the last areas before they closed at 8 pm.  If you go (and you should!), give yourself about 3 hours to take it all in.  

After that, we headed back to Brooklyn, picked up a pizza and some beer and just decompressed!  

MONDAY

Monday morning rolled around too soon and it was just about time to pack up and get ready to hit the road.  We grabbed some breakfast at a little diner called Cathy’s Place right around the corner from where we stayed.  It was a hoot.  I asked for my eggs fried and she said, "you's not from around here, are ya?!"   It was a great breakfast and BT was talking up a storm with her and the old man eating Cream of Wheat sitting next to him.  

We had a little bit of time before we needed to head out, so we ventured into Manhattan one last time for a trip to the NYC Public Library, home of the Ghostbuster lion statues.  

Here I am headed up the stairs to the most iconic room, the McGraw Rotunda.  

From the steps of the library looking out.  

You're probably exhausted from just reading all of this.  So imagine how we felt by this point!  We were so ready to get the hell out of the city and go back to being country bumpkins!

Start spreading the news.  We're leaving today!  

New York City, you truly are the city that never sleeps.   BT and I had a fantastic time and couldn't believe we were able to cram so much stuff into a short period of time.  I don't know about him, but I needed a vacation after our vacation!  

SUMMARY

Hours spent in the city:  48 (1300 Saturday - 1300 Monday)

Number of times we had to find parking:  1 (We rode the subway and walked everywhere.)  

We parked on Marine Ave in Brooklyn.  Fitting.  

Amount of delicious street food eaten:  Too embarrassed to say.  

 Ermahgerd!!!  Schmergersberg!

Mile walked:  Countless.  

Selfies taken:  24

That's how we roll!

Amount of fun that was had:  I quit blogging if you can't figure that out by reading this!